Human activity has little impact on climate

BIANCA JAGGER’S climate analysis feature (January 1) should take the prize for new year doom-and-gloom.

It started us all off weak at the knees offering slightly more hope than a prediction that the end of the world was nigh.

It is only ‘good housekeeping’ practice for all countries, in the interests of environment, health and safety, to reduce greenhouse gases. Forget about CO2 emissions and assumptions of man’s ability to change the climate.

Lay to rest, too, alarmist claims of the threat of melting glaciers, rising oceans and reversal of the Gulf Stream.

The atmosphere will continue to change as it always has under the influence of life and geology. As Denis Rancourt, Ottawa professor of physics, says: “These are things we can barely perceive correctly, never mind control them.”

Combustible toxins and chemicals have existed since the formation of the planet and, whether in natural or processed form, eruptions were inevitable at varying stages.

Top scientists and researchers like Dr Antonio Zichichi, president of the World Federation of Scientists, botanist David Bellamy and environmental science researcher Prof Denis Ramcourt all say global warming and climate change are driven by natural phenomena, including fluctuation of the sun’s cosmic rays — and not greenhouse gases. Human activity has less than 10% impact. Or as researcher Scott McIntosh puts it, “the equivalent of the difference the weight of a flea would make on an elephant’s back”. Apparently there is growing evidence that global temperatures have not risen since 1998, and may even fall.

All adding up to what I believe is a flawed science and a shady political agenda about all the claims of man-made global warming. What is really happening is that the measures to deal with the issue could inflict the heaviest burden on the world’s poorest people — those who contribute least to the problem and are likely to suffer most.

One outcome will be food shortages and higher prices brought about by excessive demand on productive land for biofuel crops in preference to cereals as food for the starving millions.

James A Gleeson

Turtulla

Thurles

Co Tipperary